Could We Start Again, Please?
by romanticidiot
Summary: SiriusHermione. Nobody knows much about the veil. What if the person who falls through it isn't really lost forever?


**Could We Start Again, Please?**

**By**

**Romantic Idiot**

**DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations belong to JK Rowling and affiliates.**

The last thing he remembered before he woke up was the look on Remus's face as the world fell away behind him. When he came to he was lying face-down in rubble, his arm numb underneath him and his right knee bleeding over his pants. His eyes gradually grew accustomed to the light and he began to take in his surroundings. Dark shapes moved in his hazy vision, coming towards him, making noises he slowly began to recognise as speech. He began to reacquaint himself with moving his body parts. He groaned involuntarily as his back cracked and his arms creaked as he shakily pushed himself up on his hands. A dull ache began low in the back of his neck.

'Hey!' Someone cried and the voice echoed inside his head like an explosion in Slughorn's dungeons. He heard footsteps and used them to orient himself. He heaved himself to his knees and the world spun around him. 'What are you doing here?'

'Not sure,' he said. 'Just ... woke up here.'

The man swam slowly into focus and Sirius blinked until he could see clearly and the man's uniform sprang into his vision. He cursed. The Ministry of Magic insignia blazed fiercely from the man's blue robes, and his wand dangled from a wrist, batting gently against his thigh where he stood looming over him. The man's expression was inscrutable.

'This is prohibited property,' he said. 'It is my legal duty to escort you off the premises. Where can I take you?'

Sirius's head whirled at the question.

'Uh, it's okay,' he replied. 'I'm – I'll walk.'

The man eyed him suspiciously.

'Not sure you're in a fit state to be walking anywhere, mate,' he said. 'You sure I can't Apparate you somewhere?'

'Nah, it'll be right,' Sirius said and gave him a shadow of the roguish grin. 'What happened here, though?' he asked and saw the man's suspicion deepen. 'Been out of town,' he added.

'Voldemort, of course,' the man grunted. 'Well, Death Eaters, anyway. The ones not at the showdown at the school took to it with muggle bombles mixed with wizardry and wiped it out. What they left wasn't worth salvaging so our side Vanished it completely. A lot of good people lost their lives in that explosion.'

'Merlin,' Sirius breathed. 'So this is ...'

'What remains of the Ministry of Magic, that's right, sir, and now I really think it's time for you to move on.'

Sirius groaned to his feet and took off, stumbling over the debris and wincing as it jarred his injured leg. His mind was buzzing and he struggled to wrap his mind around what appeared to have happened to him. It hardly seemed possible, but stranger things had happened. He followed the road around without thinking, his unconscious mind leading him towards the one place that had always stood safe for him.

Only to find another smoking ruin where Grimmauld Place should have stood. He stared at it, his mind refusing to comprehend what his eyes were telling him. He wondered briefly what muggles saw when they saw this place. Surely the _fidelius_ couldn't hide _this_ much damage. The blank space in the street where a house once stood, the blackened remains oozing magical aura like an extinguished fire. He focussed on the aura, trying to read it, but without a wand to focus his energy it was like trying to look at his reflection in a pool of rippling water. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his aching face. Where could he go? He was too tired to spend long wondering and his body longed for a soft bed. He searched in his pockets for money and found a single gold gallion. It wasn't enough for a room but it would buy him a half-decent meal, which was enough to energise him to pick himself up and find somewhere to eat.

*

Hermione's head ached like she hadn't eaten in hours. She looked down at her watch and realised she _hadn't_ eaten in hours and sighed. She rose carefully from her seat and stretched, her joints popping as she moved. An owl arrived at her window and she stumbled over to it, her foot suddenly announcing that blood was returning to it.

_Request Potions:_

_Veritaserum_

_Felix Felicis_

_Elixir of Life_

_Draught of Living Death_

By request of M. McGonogal

Headmistress, Hogwarts

Hermione sighed. Her potions list never changed and she sighed again at the thought of people still requiring them. She thought about food as she checked her potions supply cupboard. She was running low on a few things and combined with her growing awareness of her hunger, going out for a bagel and some ingredients shopping seemed like an increasingly good idea. She grabbed her key from the top draw, gathered her purse, lowered her wards and left the office. Her walk was confident and she held her head high despite the scar running across her neck and the limp that made her footsteps uneven. She closed in on her favourite bakery and inhaled the smell of coffee like a drug.

'Good afternoon, Laura,' she greeted the counter clerk as the bell over the door announced her arrival. 'The bagel today, please.'

'Hello, Hermione,' Laura returned. 'You're just in time. We're about to start closing.'

'Goodness, is it that late?' she asked. 'No wonder I felt like food.'

'One vegetarian bagel to go, please,' Laura shouted to the kitchen and Hermione gazed longingly at the rows of roast beef and chicken sandwiches in the front cabinet. Her tastebuds yearned for meat but her stomach turned at even the thought of it. 14 years later and the memory of the smell of burnt flesh still kept her strictly vegetarian. She stared out of the window as she waited, musing. If the coffee shop was closing the chances were good that the apothecary and her other suppliers were also closing, and that put a significant stopper on her plans. She considered flooing Ginny and meeting up with her and Harry for the evening and was just mentally making it a priority when a tall man in a leather duster walking down the street made the blood run cold in her veins. She was out of the door and following him before her brain had analysed the information.

Everything about him screamed SIRIUS at her, even though she knew it was impossible. But it wasn't the first time this had happened. He was the one unsolved mystery of the war. Everybody else had somehow been accounted for, but her mind played over his disappearance again and again. Harry and Ron had long since given up trying to explain that he was dead, not missing. But it just seemed illogical to her to assume that he was dead because he was gone. It seemed small-minded and stubborn. The veil simply could not have absorbed _both_ his body and soul. He could be alive somewhere and 'dead' would not sit with her until she had seen his corpse.

She tried not to focus on how frantic her heels sounded on the pavement or how stupid she was going to look _again_ if she was wrong, and her breathing regulated a little as she settled into a rhythm and her body remembered what it was like to move this way. She had gotten out of practice over the years and she made a mental note to change that. Peace time it may be but she had learnt to avoid complacency.

Her eyes narrowed as she closed in on him and she reached his pathway. He heard her coming and turned around, his eyes wide with confusion and she saw no trace of recognition in them, but she kept going, determined to see this through now. He started to turn away, deciding she was of no relevance to him, and she reached forward and grabbed him by the arm, swinging him around. He had his wand drawn in a second and she bodily resisted the urge to grab for hers, and stared at him instead, searching for the features that had once haunted the halls of Grimmauld Place. They were there, hidden beneath years of trying to blend in and look like everyone else. His hair was still long, falling into his eyes even as he glared down at her, and somewhere she dimly noticed that it would be a liability in an open duel, but it made her ache, for the familiarity it brought her.

'Hi,' she breathed without thinking and he blinked.

'What?'

'Hi,' she repeated. 'It's generally accepted as a form of greeting. I hope that's been consistent wherever you've been, Sirius.'

He started.

'How did you know my name?' he asked, peering curiously at her.

'Oh, well, I suppose it's not surprising that you don't remember me. It's not like I was ever anything to you than one more face filling up your house,' she said wildly, even as she felt a small flash of hurt that he had forgotten her. But a strange look came into his eyes, and a small well of hope sprung up inside her, despite herself.

'You don't mean Grimmauld Place, do you? Because if you are, and you were there, you would know that house was never my house.'

'Oh,' Hermione said. 'Well, it was yours legally. Kreacher obeyed you, at any rate. You know, because of that ridiculous magical binding they're under.'

'Ohh,' he said, cutting her off. 'Hermione.' And the look on his face made her fall silent and his eyes drew her deep inside them. His lips moved over her name and the sound of it washed over her like a warm shower. Without knowing how, she was somehow in his arms, and he wrapped himself around her, holding her tightly to him.

'Hermione, I've _missed_ you,' he said into her hair.

'Really?' She replied.

'I missed all of you, all of Harry's friends,' he told her.

'Why haven't you spoken to him or anyone since ... how the hell did this happen? You fell through the veil, everybody said you were dead.'

She felt Sirius sigh beneath her cheek, and he pushed her away.

'We shouldn't discuss this here. Do you live near here? Do you know someplace we can go?'

'Well my office is just around the corner, we can floo home from there, if you like,' she said and bit her lip.

'Fine,' he said and waited for her to lead the way. She hesitated for a second, unwilling for him to see her limp and then swallowed her pride. She worried for a moment when she couldn't hear his footsteps and then they fell in reassuringly behind her before he caught up to walk beside her in silence.

'Hang on, I just have to pick up my bagel,' she said as they reached the bakery. 'I was ... distracted before I could pick it up.'

He waited outside and watched her interacting casually with the shop assistant. He had been so worried that they would be ... damaged, unable to function as themselves rather than weapons. Hermione smiled at him as she reached him and he saw the schoolgirl inside her again.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

Going to try another chaptered fic, how do you guys feel about that? It's a different pairing yet again, but none of the others really fit. I didn't want to make this too AU, so Sirius/Remus was out. Anyway, let me know if you think it's worth continuing. An honest opinion, please :)

The title will change, too. It's just the song that's playing at the moment and I can't think of anything better.

Thanks for all your support.

Liz.


End file.
